Funded by the International Growth Center, this project aims to assess climate vulnerabilities in Sindh Province, focusing on floods, droughts, heatwaves, and saltwater intrusion. It will employ a mixed-methods approach, combining data collection, analysis, surveys, remote sensing, and stakeholder consultations. The project will analyze secondary climate data to observe trends and patterns. Surveys and consultations will gather information on socio-economic impacts and adaptive practices. The findings will inform policy recommendations for enhancing resilience. Project outcomes will be disseminated through publications, briefs, and workshops to raise public awareness. The 6-month project will deliver evidence-based recommendations for policy decisions, aiming to mitigate climate hazards and improve resilience in Sindh Province.

Climate Vulnerabilities in Sindh Province, Pakistan

How have forms of violence against women changed over time and how far these mutations correspond to gains in women’s agency?  This study led by Nazish Brohi and is supported by a Countering Backlash, Reclaiming Gender Justice Seed Grant from the Institute of Development Studies (IDS).  It will use the framework of ‘patriarchal backlash’ which encapsulates a range of measures across countries that oppose and aim to reverse gains for gender justice, to understand the trajectory of violence against women and honour crimes. The study will also look at how notions of masculinity have evolved with the crime over the last decade.  It will focus on crime statistics from Sindh as well as in-depth interviews with women and men from families which have been exposed to ‘honour killings’.

Between Reforms and Reprisals – Permutations of Patriarchy in Pakistan

In this project will focus on the impact of the 18th constitutional amendment to the Constitution of Pakistan and the concomitant process of enhancing administrative and fiscal federalism
within this hybrid regime on i) inter-governmental relations within the political system, ii) coordination
and conflict between elected and bureaucratic elites across the three tiers of governments, and iii) policymaking
and governing outcomes generated by this decentralized system.
The primary objective is to study how the terms and clarity of the constitutional framework for
decentralization shaped the relationship between elected and unelected elites across the tiers of
government and impacted political coordination and policymaking in Pakistan. In studying the impact of
constitutional decentralization on politics and policymaking in Pakistan’s hybrid political system, the
researchers will focus on three areas of policymaking: fiscal federalism, disaster management and
policing.

Federalism in a Hybrid Governance Context: The Case of Pakistan

The London School of Economics and Political Science was awarded a grant from the British Academy for a research project on the Rubbish, Resources and Residues (RRR) to examine changes in the technology and governance of the solid waste management systems both in Ethiopia and Pakistan. In Pakistan the Collective for Social Science Research as project partner worked in two large cities Faisalabad and Karachi on "traditional municipal sweepers" (TMS). The qualitative study revisited scholarly work done on the solid waste sector in Faisalabad and Karachi in early 1990s for understanding continuity and change in the lives, experiences and opportunities of women and men from traditional municipal sweeper communities in two cities.  The historically marginalised community with sweeping and rag-picking work and further  analytical report also explores on the relationship between group-based identities and the "sweeping" work regarded as low-paid, unsafe, unpleasant or dirty and ‘contaminating’ universally including Pakistan.

Rubbish, Resources and Residues: Waste and Well-being in Ethiopia and Pakistan

This research aims to get a better understanding of the complexity of daily life during and after the COVID-19 pandemic in Karachi, Pakistanâ€™s largest city and major hub of the outbreak. The Pakistan study is part of an <a href='https://fact-covid.wixsite.com/study/i-cofact' target='_blank'>international network</a> of projects in ten countries led by <a href='https://www.ucl.ac.uk/ioe/departments-and-centres/centres/thomas-coram-research-unit/research/fact-covid-families-and-community-transitions-under-covid' target='_blank'>University College London (UCL)</a>, all using similar methods and addressing related questions. Partners academic institutions in Argentina, Chile, Russia, Singapore, South Africa, Sweden, Taiwan and the United States have also begun data collection. Together the country studies will provide an internationally comparative, longitudinal lens on local responses to a global health crisis. The intention is to investigate the challenges experienced by families, the risks posed to well-being and the steps being taken by families to overcome these risks during these difficult times.
 

FACT uses innovative online ethnographic research methodology, mainly individual diaries and interviews. By focusing on families, we explore both how individuals respond to public health measures put in place, and how these are negotiated with others in the household and family. We will unpack both inter and intra-household differences, exploring how positionality in the household (such as that determined by gender and age) and access to various forms of capital, shape the ways and means through which individuals can mitigate risk to well-being in the context of a public health crisis such as this. Findings will inform national and local policy responses to COVID-19 as it unfolds, and aid in planning for potential future pandemics.
 
FACT Pakistan is a collaborative research initiative bringing together experts from three major academic and research institutions in the social sciences in Karachi for the first time. The Collectiveâ€™s Senior Researcher, Ayesha Khan, is Principal Investigator. Her research expertise lies in qualitative research design, gender justice movements, policy analysis, and sexual and reproductive rights. Co-lead investigator, Dr Faiza Mushtaq, chairs the Social Sciences and Liberal Arts department at the Institute of Business Administration (IBA), Karachi. She is a sociologist who works on gender, social movements and collective action, culture, and qualitative research methods. Co-lead investigator, Dr. Shama Dossa, is Associate Professor of Social Development Policy at Habib University with expertise as a community development practitioner, researcher, and academic with a specific focus on disasters, gender, reproductive health and rights.

Family and Community in the Time of Covid-19 (FACT Pakistan)

This study estimates a living income and living wage benchmark for rural Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The study uses the Anker Methodology and will be the second estimate of a living wage in Pakistan.

Living Income and Living Wage for Rural Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

Living wage is recognized as a 'right' by the international community and is included in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. This study uses a new methodology, more rigorous than previous ones, to estimate a living wage for workers in Sialkot. This will be representative of small urban and rural north Punjab.  The methodology uses a mix of primary and secondary data, and has four components: food costs for a low-cost, nutritious model diet; housing costs; non-food non-housing costs; and a 5% buffer for emergencies. The aim of the study is to bridge the gap between the existing wage and the living wage over a period of time.

Living Wage Benchmark for Northeast Punjab

In collaboration with the Center for Reproductive Rights in New York, the Collective embarked upon a fact-finding on the impact of Covid-19 on the sexual and reproductive health and rights of women and girls in Sindh. The methodology for the research is based on media tracking of news reports, interviews with key informants working in the sector, and extensive consultations with stakeholders to come up with recommendations for the government.


Maternal Health Fact-Finding

The Collective was engaged by the World Bank to develop a Gender and Vulnerability framework as part of the broader Social Management Framework for two upcoming projects that aim to improve delivery of water, sanitation and urban services in Karachi.

Gender and Vulnerability Framework

The World Bank's South Asia Disaster Risk Management (DRM) team has commenced a new regional Technical Assistance (TA): Mainstreaming Inclusive Resilience in South Asia to proactively incorporate social inclusion in the existing and new DRM lending portfolio. The objectives of this assignment are: (i) to develop action plans for five pilot projects, that are either new or existing, to better address social inclusion in the project design or implementation stage; and (ii) to design and deliver training workshops that help government counterparts and World Bank Teams, particularly the DRM and Social Development teams, to design more socially inclusive DRM projects.

Mainstreaming Inclusive Resilience in South Asia

Maintaining Essential Services after Natural Disasters (MAINTAINS) is a five-year research programme funded by Department for International Development (DFID) UK. It aims to develop an improved evidence base on how education, health, social protection, nutrition, and water and sanitation services can adapt and expand in response to covariate shocks such as floods, droughts, earthquakes and extreme temperatures. A central component of MAINTAINS is the understanding and identification of better disaster risk financing practices, essential for the achievement of shock responsive services.

Collective is the research partner for MAINTAINS in Pakistan. The consortium is led by Oxford Policy Management Limited (OPML) and runs in five other countries including Bangladesh, Kenya, Uganda, Sierra Leone, and Ethiopia.

Maintaining Essential Services after Natural Disasters (MAINTAINS)

 Foundation Open Society Institute (FOSI), a Swiss charitable foundation within the Open Society Foundations (www.opensocietyfoundations.org), has awarded Collective for Social Science Research a grant for Linking Right to Information with Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by engaging with stakeholders Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) in Sindh, Punjab and KP provinces of Pakistan.  The stakeholder mapping exercise will generate a CSOs database followed by a SWOT analysis and Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) with selected CSOs for future engagement with FOSIP on various SDGs and targets. 

Linking Right to Information with SDGs

The Collective has secured a grant from the SOAS Anti-Corruption Evidence research consortium <a href="https://ace.soas.ac.uk/" target="_blank">(SOAS-ACE)</a> to undertake research on private sector corruption. The project focuses on Pakistan's pharmaceutical sector, which is currently valued at approximately USD$3 billion and comprises more than 750 firms.
Corruption in the pharmaceutical sector in Pakistan has multiple negative impacts on development. It inhibits growth and dynamism in the economy - as an illustration, we compare Pakistan's export performance with Jordan and India and find Pakistan lagging far behind. Moreover, corruption also leads to higher out-of-pocket expenditures for consumers as well as putting pressure on health care services through repeat patients stretching scarce resources.

The research project will examine different facets of corruption in this sector in order to find feasible anti-corruption strategies that increase the quality of available pharmaceuticals and encourage a dynamic economic sector.

Tackling Private Corruption in Pakistan's Pharmaceutical Sector

Employment rates in South Asia overtime have remained stagnant and below those in other regions, largely attributed to persistently low female employment rates.  Within the region, Pakistan has the lowest female labour-force participation rates and urban areas perform especially poorly. This study funded by the International Growth Centre seeks to understand how migration, urbanization and spatial anxieties across ethnicities shape women's agency, mobility and determines women's access to the market, economic opportunities and the public sphere in the mega-city of Karachi. The contours of women's agency vary significantly across the city, and any social and economic policy design for the city, in terms of women, will have to be nuanced and cognizant of the diversity. Exploring and documenting these contours and diversity of experiences is the primary motivation for this research.

Women's Mobility, Agency and Labour-Force Participation in the Mega-city of Karachi

The Collective has been engaged by the <a href="https://www.globallivingwage.org/" target="_blank">Global Living Wage Coalition</a> and Martha and Richard Anker to develop a methodology and guidance for updating living wage benchmarks. The GLWC has worked with its partners to develop living wage benchmarks for 20-plus countries and there are several more studies underway. It is important to update living wage benchmarks periodically so that they retain their purchasing power. Once developed, this methodology will also be pilot tested in the following five countries: Brazil, India, Pakistan, Mexico, and South Africa.

Updating Living Wage Benchmarks

This is a qualitative study about social processes and individual behaviour of selected informal settlements in Karachi. The aim of this study is to offer an understanding of social processes that are salient to public action (particularly with respect to service delivery systems), individual concerns and opportunities, and the interaction between social processes and individual behaviour. The study does this by constructing a typology of informal settlements and qualitative research in selected settlements of different types, highlighting salient concerns and opportunities for women and men within settlements, and understanding social processes, particularly those relating to the provision of water and sanitation services, in different types of settlements in Karachi. This research study is funded by the World Bank. 

Social Processes and Individual Behaviour: A Qualitative Study of Public Service Delivery in Informally Settled Areas of Karachi

Action for Empowerment and Accountability is an international research programme which explores how social and political action can contribute to empowerment and accountability in fragile, conflict, and violent settings.

The programme will develop and apply a variety of innovative, multi-method, interdisciplinary research strategies and data sources, both quantitative and qualitative, such as surveys, diaries which households use to record their experiences of governance, and action learning, to capture, conceptualise, measure, nuance and assess both the impact of social and political action and the interventions of donors and others on empowerment and accountability.

Primarily focusing on five countries (Egypt, Mozambique, Myanmar, Nigeria, Pakistan), the programme is being implemented by a consortium which includes: the Institute of Development Studies, the Accountability Research Center, the Collective for Social Science Research, the Institute of Development and Economic Alternatives, ITAD, Oxfam GB, and the Partnership for African Social and Governance Research.

Action for Empowerment and Accountability is supported by UK aid from the UK Department for International Development.

The Collective's main study under this programme is "Women's collective action for political expression in Pakistan: advocacy, voting, and representation." It will examine (a) the history of the women's rights movement's successful campaign for the restoration of reserved seats for women in elected bodies and legislatures; (b) the obstacles [political, social and administrative] faced by women who seek to exercise their right to vote, and collective action to overcome these obstacles; (c) the formation and effectiveness of the Women's Caucus at the provincial and national legislatures to enhance women's political participation and further women's rights; (d) women's collective action for reform in election laws to require political parties to increase allocation of tickets on general seats to women and increase women's voice and decision-making power within parties.

The Collective is also participating in a collaborative research group to explore how the binary framings of secular/liberal/elitist/westernized feminists vs. religious/indigenous/pious women have come to influence women's rights struggles for empowerment and accountability in relation to both state and non-state actors. The research contributes to the A4EA framework by (1) amplifying the unintended outcomes of particular constructs of women's empowerment drawn by external actors, including academics, practitioners, policy makers and donors have on local feminists struggling to challenge norms and values that circumscribe rights in fragile contexts and (2) increasing understandings of how collective action can make power-holders accountable for agendas that diminish individual women's rights in the name of the preservation of the cultural rights of the 'community'. The collaboration will generate a series of papers by an international group of scholars to be published in a peer-reviewed feminist academic journal.

Action for Empowerment and Accountability

The Collective for Social Science Research was commissioned by the World Bank to undertake a risk assessment of the political environment of the BISP. The study aimed to provide an understanding of the political climate around the BISP as it was likely to affect the programme - its operation as well as planned developments such as the expansion of Waseela-e-Taleem (WeT) which is an educational co-responsibility transfer under the ambit of BISP, and the updating and wider adoption of the National Socio Economic Registry (NSER) for social programming. The assessment was based on a review of secondary material, stakeholder interviews, and a scan of newspaper coverage relating to BISP.

Political Risk Assessment of the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP)

The study examines the role of vocational training in reducing violence in the city. It is aimed at the youth (15-29 year-olds) of Karachi's three working class areas i.e. Sultanabad, Korangi and Lyari, where UNDP's Youth Employment Project (YEP) is operational. The research will analyze and attempt to deconstruct the socioeconomic profiles of the youth in order to understand their problems, experiences with violence and perceived solutions. It will focus on the possible impact of vocational training opportunities for the youth on their involvement in violence, concentrating on gender and ethnic differentials

UNDP Youth Employment Project (YEP)

The study analyses the cost of Invasive pneumococcal Disease (IPD) for 
four districts of Sindh. It was a part of a larger assessment of impact 
of introduction of PCV-10 vaccine. The study assessed the economic 
burden of IPD from three dimensions: the actual out of pocket expenses 
borne by the family of the patient, the cost incurred by the service 
provider and the opportunity cost of time spent on the patient's care by 
the care-giver(s).

AKU Vaccine Study - Economic Costs of Invasive Pneumococcal Disease

This study, commissioned by the World Bank, will contribute towards developing a social inclusion framework that supports the transformation and sustainable growth of Karachi.  Specifically, the research will identify cross-cutting challenges and opportunities that need to be considered in the development of programs for marginalized groups in the city.

Framework Towards an Inclusive City: Karachi

The Collective for Social Science Research is a co-curator of the Women of the World (WOW) festival, Karachi with Southbank Centre, British Council, Department of Visual Studies at Karachi University, Entrepreneurship and Community Development Institute (ECDI), Hack Hackers, Pakistan Institute of Labour Education and Research (PILER), Salt Arts, and ToffeeTV.
The Women of the World (WOW) festival was launched in 2011 on the centenary of International Women's Day and is now a global movement of festivals for everyone that celebrates women and girls and looks at the obstacles that prevent them from achieving their full potential. WOW Karachi, held on May 1st 2016 was the first full WOW festival in South Asia. To date, WOW has reached over one million people worldwide and this number is growing year on year. By 2018, the Southbank Centre aims to present WOW in all 53 Commonwealth countries.
The annual WOW Karachi celebrates women and girls locally and globally and aims to foster a sense of community between women and men. The event is made up of various talks, debates, performances, workshops and networking activities and invites people from all walks of life. The Collective for Social Science Research is responsible for curating WOW Talks - a series of discussions that brings together academics, politicians, practitioners and citizens to collectively think about key questions facing young girls and women in Pakistan today.

Women of the World (WOW) Festival Karachi

The Collective is part of a team of researchers engaged to draft a social protection policy for Sindh. Until now, there have been multiple social protection schemes that are initiated by different provincial departments. This policy, thus, aims to create a cohesive and efficient framework for the provision of social protection in the province. 

Sindh Social Protection Policy

This study examines the informal sector in Karachi. 'Informality' is functionally defined as  mass of economic activity that takes place either wholly or partially beyond the reach of the state. The research aims to advance our understanding of how a blend of formal and informal economic activity presents state power with significant challenges in ensuring stability.  The objective will be to discern the relationship between economic informality and various dimensions of state stability, from ensuring its writ to arranging for its fiscal requirements. This will be done by looking at informality in three main areas: real estate, transport and manufacturing.  The study will then make policy recommendations that would encourage greater formalization of the economy. 

Economizing Stability: Political economy of informal sector activity in Karachi

Pakistan has the second highest out of school population in the world and only 42% of girls in Pakistan have completed primary school or above, as compared to 60% boys (Pakistan Bureau of Statistics 2013). The Citizens Foundation (TCF) is one of the largest non-profit organizations providing formal education to the less privileged in the country. This study examines the TCF methodology for ensuring girls' enrolment and retention, which seek to overcome some of the structural barriers that result in a gender gap in overall education sector. The research focuses on TCF's primary schools and employs a qualitative research methodology, interviewing mothers, staff, principals and community members in two districts in Sindh and Punjab each.

Best practices in girls' enrolment in Pakistan: a TCF case study

The study examines the role of the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) in supporting economic growth and development. The research explores the historical and institutional role of the State Bank of Pakistan vis-à-vis its core and dual functions, as well as its coordinator role with the Federal government in macroeconomic management. Through extensive literature review and interviews with key informants who have experience in management of the central bank, and in devising and executing monetary policy, the study examines the role that SBP has played in financial deepening and financial inclusion as well as constraints it faces, especially in regards to coordination of monetary policy with fiscal imperatives of the government. The study will then make recommendations on ways in which the State Bank of Pakistan can enhance its impact on economic growth and development in general. 

The Role of Central Banks in Supporting Economic Growth and Development: The Case of Pakistan

The Collective has been engaged by UNICEF to study Adolescents "Being an Adolescent in Karachi" under Programme: YS-104 - Child protection. The purpose of this study is to see the state of adolescents through quantitative and qualitative research. The quantitative survey instruments include community profile, household, and adolescent questionnaires with time use survey designed with the help of an extensive literature review. The survey will be conducted in 120 sampled lower income localities of Karachi. Survey participants will be stratified by sex and age (younger 10-14 years, and older 15-19 years) in 20 eligible households of each site. The qualitative design will be based on three main themes of study: negotiation of physical mobility and agency; adolescent unemployment and entry into the world of work and adolescents perceptions and attitudes with respect to identity and group affiliation. Both qualitative and quantitative data collected will be analysed and used for understanding the state of adolescents in urban Karachi.

Being an Adolescent in Karachi

The Collective is undertaking a field survey in selected sites in Jamshoro and Khairpur Districts to assess the reproductive health knowledge and misconceptions among men, women, and adolescents on behalf of Indus Resource Centre. The purpose of the assessment is provide a baseline prior to launching an intervention of a reproductive health and life skills curriculum in these communities.

Community-Based Reproductive Health Rapid Assessment in Rural Sindh

The Collective is conducting a qualitative survey in three sites across Pakistan collecting feedback from intended beneficiaries of the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) on behalf of the Department of International Development (DFID) - Pakistan. The purpose of this study is to enable better assessment of programme performance with the goal of enhanced beneficiary accountability. To this end the Collective will conduct research which focuses on intended beneficiary perceptions of the impact of the cash transfer and their interaction with BISP processes, helping to inform programme improvements based on beneficiary feedback.

BISP Beneficiary Feedback Survey

The Collective has been commissioned by the Department of International Development, UK in Pakistan (DFID) to conduct an impact evaluation of its portfolio of elections programmes which consists of two main programmes - Support to Electoral Reform in Pakistan (SERP) and Supporting Transparency Accountability and Electoral Processes (STAEP). The evaluation will be used to provide evidence of the contribution SERP and STAEP have made to changes in voter turnout in the 2013 elections and to strengthening of democratic processes in Pakistan. A Contribution Analysis approach is being utilized and a range of quantitative and qualitative methods will be used for data collection and analysis including stakeholder interviews, community-based fieldwork in eight constituencies across Pakistan, quantitative analysis of data from elections and voter surveys and analysis of broader contextual determinants of political outcomes in Pakistan. Lessons learnt from the evaluation will be used to inform design of future election programmes in Pakistan.  

Impact Evaluation of DFID's Elections Programmes in Pakistan

The Asia Foundation funded a study on understanding patterns of political settlements in post and pre conflict regions in Pakistan. The regions chosen for this purpose were Swat (post-conflict) and Rahimyar Khan (pre-conflict). The follow-up study focuses on salient underlying structural causes that have either led to or are likely to lead to conflict in the Swat region. The study is qualitative in nature. The research is based on Key Informant Interviews in Swat across different socio-economic backgrounds, and an extensive literature review. It traces the historical antecedents of the present conflict, underlying socio-economic and institutional features of the Swati society and the role of the state that led to conflict in the region. The paper also identifies directions for future research to arrive at a more comprehensive understanding of structural causes of violence in Swat. This will not only help in a more holistic understanding of causes of violence but can potentially also inform conflict resolution mechanisms in the future.

Understanding Conflict in Swat

This special issue of the IDS Bulletin, supported by DFID, focuses on undernutrition in Pakistan. The collection of 12 articles (1) describe the nutrition status and its correlates and causes, (2) assess some of the interventions employed to reduce undernutrition, and (3) analyse the political economy of undernutrition in Pakistan. The Bulletin highlights determinants, features and strategies to overcome the problem undernutrition in Pakistan. 

IDS Bulletin, Volume 44, Issue 3

The Collective has partnered with PATH for this study which has been commissioned by the Department of International Development, UK (DFID). The purpose of this project is to conduct formative research and design operational research for nutrition-direct or nutrition-sensitive interventions which can be piloted along the existing cash transfer component of the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP). The Collective will be carrying out stakeholder consultations and conducting qualitative fieldwork in five districts across Pakistan focusing on the interaction of beneficiaries with BISPs systems and processes, determinants of malnutrition and barriers to improvement at the local level and feasibility of potential pilots. The data collected will be analysed and used to inform operational research design for pilots.

Maximising the impact of cash transfers on undernutrition in Pakistan

This is a four-year research project led by the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) UK and Oxfam in collaboration with research partners in ten developing countries. The project aims to generate evidence on how high and unpredictable food prices affect the lives of individuals in poor and vulnerable communities and to explore the role played by formal social protection programmes and informal coping mechanisms. The study is designed to be longitudinal to understand the dynamics of these impacts . The Collective for Social Science Research is a research partner in Pakistan and will be carrying out an in-depth qualitative study in one rural and one urban site.

Life in a Time of Food Price Volatility

Pakistan has witnessed major expansion in the scale of cash transfer programmes targeted to the chronically poor and as disaster relief and rehabilitation.  The World Bank commissioned ICF-GHK, in partnership with the Collective for Social Science Research and Associates in Development (AID), to undertake an assessment of the Financial Inclusion and Literacy (FIL) outcomes of such cash transfer programmes and their various payment modalities. The two specific cash transfer programmes which were reviewed were the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) and the Citizen Damage Compensation Programme (CDCP) or the Watan Card scheme. The assessment compares alternate payment mechanisms such as the Pakistan Post Office, Smart Cards, Debit Cards, mobile phone technology and the interface provided with the banking sector through ATM machines, Point of Sale terminals, branchless banking agent networks and bank branches. The project was based on the collection of primary sample survey data supported by a qualitative survey in 16 selected communities across the four provinces.  The Collective was responsible for the collection and analysis of qualitative data and for the collection of the sample survey data in Sindh.

Financial Inclusion and Literacy

Department for International Development (DFID) has asked Collective to conduct an impact assessment of their Improved Citizens Engagement through Devolution (ICED) project. The purpose of ICED was 'Increased citizen participation, and improved utilization of district development funds, in local governments in Pakistan'. The focus of our study is the impact of Citizen Community Boards (CCBs) formed under ICED on the socially excluded. A qualitative survey has been carried out with the CCB members and selected NGO/government personnel in Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Sindh, North Punjab and South Punjab.

Impact Assessment of DFID's Improved Citizens Engagement through Devolution (ICED) project

LANSA is a research programme consortium (RPC) funded by the Department for International Development (DFID) UK.  The consortium is based on the premise that nutritional trends have been stagnant over much of South Asia despite economic growth and improvements in agricultural productivity.  LANSA aims to generate evidence on how agricultural growth in South Asia might become more pro-nutrition. The research programme of the consortium will identify policy actions which can lead to agriculture having a much larger impact on food security and under nutrition across the region.  The Collective is the LANSA partner in Pakistan. The consortium is led by the M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF) in India, and includes BRAC International in Bangladesh, Institute of Development Studies (IDS) UK, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and Leverhulme Centre for Integrative Research on Agriculture and Health (LCIRAH) UK.

Leveraging Agriculture for Nutrition in South Asia (LANSA)

The Collective has been asked to assess  WFP's School Feeding Programme implemented in selected government primary schools across Pakistan. The programme is designed to target areas affected by conflict or natural disasters and to address  food insecurity.  The  programme's development objectives are to increase enrolment, reduce absenteeism, combat short-term hunger and provide income support to families. The project involves reviewing the process and assessing the impact of the programme and will provide recommendations for future school feeding programmes. A sample qualitative survey was carried out in Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Punjab and Sindh along with in-depth interviews with all organizations involved to collect information on the process chain from start to end.

Impact Assessment of WFP's School Feeding Programme

The Asia Foundation (TAF) has engaged the Collective for DIFID-CHASE Programme Partnership Arrangement to conduct an academic research study over State-Society Relations in post-conflict district Swat in KPK province and pre-conflict district Rahim Yar Khan in Punjab province of Pakistan. The research study is being conducted to provide a descriptive analysis of the state society relations from the perspectives of collective action forged by different non-state groups across political, ethnic, religious, sectarian and occupational lines- and interaction of these groups with different elements of the state being probed in both sites. The aim of this research study is to explore the balance of power across societal group's vis-a-vis key elements of the state.

Political Settlements in Conflict Zones Study

This project, supported by the Institute of Development and Economic Alternatives (IDEAS), analyzes the contemporary significance of the kinship group and the extent to which it defines who is excluded and marginalized in Pakistani society today. It involves a review of ethnographies and case studies of communities in rural Pakistan to examine the significance of kinship groups of various forms (e.g clans, tribes, and castes) as markers of social inequality and hierarchy. The concept of universal access to full citizenship provides the benchmark against which social marginality and exclusion based on kinship group hierarchies will be gauged. The project is based on a review of existing literature, the re-examination of selected primary sources of data, and limited exploratory fieldwork. It is premised on the kinship group-based hierarchies are or have been common across the societal landscape in Pakistan, but have received relatively little academic, political and policy attention.  The project aims to draw a preliminary map of kinship group and marginality of rural Pakistan as a prelude to more extensive data collection.

Kinship Groups and Marginality

The Collective is conducting a mapping and assessment study for Unicef, in order to collect information on all activities pertaining to child protection in Pakistan. This includes government programs and activities, as well as those conducted in the NGO sector. The exercise, which is based on a questionnaire/toolkit that was developed internationally, is being conducted in Sindh, Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa and Punjab, as well as at the national level. The purpose of the exercise is to assist provincial governments and Unicef in prioritizing areas of data collection and interventions over the next planning period.

Mapping and Assessment of Child Protection in Pakistan

Hussain Bux Mallah was asked to carry out a Power Mapping and Stakeholder Analysis in four ecosites of Indus River ecoregions of Sindh to aid Indus for All Programme-WWF Pakistan for Phase-II Biodiversity Conservation and Poverty Alleviation interventions.  The Power Mapping and Stakeholder Analysis consisted of a review of the socio-economic baseline by IFAP-WWF Pakistan and qualitative fieldwork for understanding with power structure, challenges through identification champions, swingers and blockers in BCPA interventions.

Power Mapping Indus for All Programme-WWF

Pakistan's flagship social protection programme (Benazir Income Support Programme) has undergone a transition in its basis of targeting and its case management system.  The Collective for Social Science Research, is part of a consortium led by ICF-GHK to carry out a Process Evaluation of the national roll-out of this transition of the BISP. The general objective of the process evaluation is to review the performance of the targeting process and follow up activities by monitoring the efficiency (time wise) and accuracy (with respect to the Operations Management) of the project cycle stages, to provide regular and timely feedback to BISP and recommend immediate improvements. The Process Evaluation will assist in identifying options for improving the process or the targeting, in addition to providing feedback on process design for the achievement of BISP's overarching goals of income support and empowerment of women in the poorest households of Pakistan. The Collective is responsible for fieldwork activity in the Sindh cluster.

BISP Process Evaluation of Roll Out

The project is part of a multi-country review of the impact of globalisation on labour and employment. Pakistan's economy has undergone a steady process of globalisation since around 1988.  The paper provides a brief overview of the political economy of this process, with a particular focus on the most recent decade. Labour data are analysed to see how trade liberalisation has affected employment and workforce trends in Pakistan, in comparison with promised outcomes.  It is shown that informal institutions play a key role in shaping labour market outcomes, and hence the impact of globalisation.

Globalisation and Labour

Oxfam GB have commissioned this study that aims to address the issue of land rights and security of tenure in the flood-affected regions and the impact of the floods and post-flood rehabilitation in magnifying or reducing the vulnerability of the land rights of the poor and socially marginalised. The absence of uniform title or enforcement of land claims and rights across different regions implies that floods, displacement and rehabilitation are likely to have had diverse impacts across and within affected districts. 

Land Rights and Indus Floods 2010

This study conducted for the International Labour Organisation (ILO) focused on reconstruction and rehabilitation of those affected by the Indus floods in 2010. Based on a rapid assessment of flood affected areas, employment programs at the village level were identified which create short term livelihood possibilities for the poorest affectees. Implementation design and costing of these programs are discussed keeping in mind the constraints faced by the government. This study covered four districts of Sindh, three of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and one each of Punjab and Balochistan. The employment schemes drafted were discussed with local governments as well as NGOs working on rehabilitation of flood affected areas.  

Employment Program in the Flood Affected Areas

Update of National Social Protection Policy

Dr. Asad Ahmed of the Anthropology Department of Harvard University is leading this research project aimed at recording, documenting and analyzing the language of popular political activism at a critical moment in the country's history. Interviews with individuals who emerged as political activists in the late 1960s and early 1970s are being used to examine how populist political discourse was shaped in dialogues between national leaders and local cadres.


Political Activism in Pakistan

Haris Gazdar was asked to carry out a Situation and Power Analysis to aid Oxfam GB and their partners evolve a campaign strategy on 'land rights and poverty in Pakistan'.  The Situation Analysis consisted of a wide-ranging review of issues, and the Power Analysis utilised Oxfam GB's tools for building a framework for identifying challenging but realistic goals for a medium term strategy.


Land Rights and Poverty - Power Analysis

Pakistan has recently faced a severe economic crisis due to the global economic recession, rising oil prices and the war against terrorism in Pakhtoonkhwa. As a result of this crisis, unemployment and poverty have increased sharply. In order to provide a floor for employment and a cushion to the economy, the International Labor Organization has commissioned the study of an Employment Guarantee Scheme. The study involves economic assessments of employment guarantee schemes, its social implications, estimated beneficiaries of the scheme, nature of jobs and incorporating experiences of employment guarantee schemes in other countries.

Design and feasibility of proposed Employment Guarantee Scheme in Pakistan

This project strategizes graduation of Benazir Income Support Program (BISP) from a cash transfer program into a Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT). BISP has started as simple cash transfer program providing cash to poor and vulnerable households. It is proposed that if BISP is to become sustainable and an effective tool for poverty alleviation; it should improve human capital conditions of participating households. Evaluation reports of CCT programs in Latin America and elsewhere were incorporated in the graduation strategy. The project was commissioned by the World Bank.    

Benazir Income Support Program Graduation Strategy 

The Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) is the flagship social protection intervention of the federal government. It is an unprecedented programme in Pakistan with regard to its scale and intended outreach. There are key challenges in various aspects of implementation, particularly with respect to beneficiary selection. The World Bank assisted BISP in carrying out a test phase in 16 districts using proxy means testing - or a census with a Poverty Scorecard. Along the test phase a process evaluation was launched in order to learn lessons for a national roll-out.  GHK was commissioned to carry out the process evaluation, and Haris Gazdar at the Collective was taken on as the Poverty and Social Protection Specialist for the process evaluation.





Poverty and Social Protection Specialist Inputs for Test Phase Process Evaluation of Benazir Income Support Programme

The International Food Policy Research Institute's (IFPRI) Delhi commissioned a study on the impact of food price inflation in recent years on food security in Pakistan, and policy responses to the price shocks.  The study involved a review of existing material and secondary data, and a qualitative survey of food security in a number of rural and urban communities in Punjab and Sindh.

Food Security in Pakistan

The Agha Khan University prepared a feasibility study for the Norwegian Pakistan-Partnership Initiative (NPPI) on result-based financing mechanisms for improving maternal, newborn and child health outputs in ten selected low-performing districts in Sindh. For this study, the Agha Khan University invited Dr. Asad Saeed of the Collective to be the economic expert on the team conducting the feasibility study. As part of the study Dr. Saeed examined current fund flow systems and financial information systems presently in use in the health sector in Sindh, estimated cost packages that households face when paying for maternal and child health care across the ten districts, reviewed existing targeting mechanisms in Pakistan, and proposed recommendations based on his findings and analysis. 



Sindh Maternal, Neonatal and Child Health (MNCH) Study

The Pakistan office of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) commissioned Haris Gazdar to prepare a strategic review of policies relating to the reduction of economic inequality in Pakistan.  The desk-based review examined key policy statements and documents of the government and international development partners.  It was found that the reduction in economic inequality has not been an explicit policy goal on the part of the government and its international development partners.  Economic inequality appears in the policy discussion as a derivative issue arising from concern about poverty reduction.

Policies on Economic Inequality

Residential land insecurity has been shown to be a key factor in the processes of social marginalization. This research project examines the operation of three schemes for residential land security to the poor in Pakistan.  The research questions relate to the linkages between residential land security and social protection, and also the possible role of government schemes in encouraging collective action on the part of the poor and the socially marginalized. The main methods for the research are qualitative and are based on community histories of selected urban and rural communities in Sindh and Punjab.  The project is part of a programme of research on social protection in Asia, funded by the Ford Foundation, and coordinated by the Institute of Development Studies at Sussex UK.

Residential Land Security as Social Protection

Haris Gazdar was asked by PANOS South Asia to write a speculative essay on the politics of land reform in Pakistan.



Politics of Land Reform in Pakistan

This interdisciplinary study aimed to carry out an economic analysis of unsafe abortion related morbidity and mortality in Pakistan, based on primary survey data. The project, funded by the David & Lucile Packard Foundation, is the first of its kind so far in Pakistan. An extensive review of literature was carried out to clarify key concepts and methods, and to provide a summary of existing secondary data.  Qualitative research methods were used to develop sampling methods and survey instruments.  The core activity of the project was the Induced Abortion Survey which consisted of a nation-wide sample survey of women with a recent history of induced abortion (Community-Based Women's Survey) and a prospective one-month survey at a public hospital (Hospital-Based Survey)

Economic Analysis of Unsafe Abortion Related Morbidity and Mortality

The Crisis States Research Centre (CSRC) of the Development Studies Institute (DESTIN) of the London School of Economics (LSE) has engaged the Collective as a partner research organization in its research on cities and states in developing countries.  The main focus of the CSRC is on countries where the state is facing serious challenges as a coherent entity - either because there is already conflict, or because some preconditions for institutional breakdown are thought to exist.  The Collective is carrying out research in three cities in Pakistan that have either undergone internal conflict, or are associated with an external conflict due to their proximity to a border region.

State Fragility and State-Building in Pakistan

The Asia Foundation commissioned a series of background papers on the economic situation, poverty trends, institutional challenges to the state, and the politics of demilitarization in Pakistan, as part of "Drivers of Change Update" jointly sponsored by DFID(UK), the European Union, and the Netherlands Embassy.

Drivers of Change Update

The Dawn Group asked the Collective to conduct analysis of electoral data from Pakistani general elections to identify patterns of electoral behaviour, outliers, predictive models of electoral swing, and the correlation between electoral outcomes and socio-economic characteristics.

Elections Data Analysis


The Collective was part of this multi-country exercise, coordinated by the Scalabrini Migration Center, Philippines, and supported by the International Labour Organization, in compiling a standardized database on migrants and migration in twenty Asian countries. The database is available on the website of the Migration Information System in Asia (MISA) website. Sohail Javed worked with Haris Gazdar in order to gather and compile the Pakistan data.

Migration Information System in Asia (MISA) Project

This is a multi-country research programme funded by DfID and housed in BRAC University, Bangladesh, to explore how projects and collective action at the field level in different countries are adding to our global knowledge of how  women's empowerment is theorized and implemented. As part of this programme, in 2006 the Collective completed a scoping paper to present research findings on women's paid work and empowerment in Pakistan. In 2006-7 the Collective designed and carried out a qualitative research study to examine the Lady Health Worker Programme. It is intended to enhance our understanding of how a government programme, employing almost one hundred thousand women, is facilitating social change through creating jobs for rural women. The final report of this study will be available in mid-2008.

In the next phase of collaboration between the Collective and the Pathways of Women?s Empowerment Research Programme, a qualitative study exploring the effects of micro-finance projects among women in Kabul is underway. Researchers from the Institute of Development Studies (University of Sussex) are conducting this study along with Ayesha Khan of the Collective. The research draws on qualitative interviews with women beneficiaries of two different MFI programmes.



Pathways to Women's Empowerment

Haris Gazdar was asked by The Asia Foundation to contribute a brief note on "ethnic and sectarian conflict in Sindh" as part of a broader exercise undertaken by TAF for the UK government's DFID.  The resulting paper provides a summary of the main features of ethnic and sectarian conflict in the province, and works through some of the more common explanations of conflict and its resolution.

Conflict in Sindh

The Balochistan Economic Report is an extensive study of the economic performance and growth potential of Balochistan. It is part of Asian Development Bank's technical assistance to Balochistan to help define the immediate and long term development agenda for the province. The study has been carried out in collaboration with the World Bank. The Background Paper on Social Structures and Migration examines the main internal political obstacles to the social and economic development of the province. It proposes a political-economy framework for interpreting Balochistan's economic potential, arguing that all the key sectors and activities that might contribute to growth in the province are those that are related to the creation and realization of economic rents.  It examines tribalism and ethnicity as possible sources of political fragmentation and social stagnation and elaborates upon Balochistan's actual experience with tribalism and ethnicity using a range of material including micro-level observations from fieldwork, key informant interviews and historical narratives. The paper also discusses migration and its interplay with existing social structures and economic development, and reviews the political processes and outcomes - conflict, consensus-building and accommodation respectively.  It concludes with observations on the dynamics of institutional change and the potential for social and economic development of the province.

Background Paper on Social Structures and Migration for the Balochistan Economic Report

Innovative Development Strategies (IDS) is carrying out research for the Ministry of Commerce in the area of Domestic Commerce. Domestic commerce is considered to have a key role in promoting innovation, product development, entrepreneurship and quality assurance and therefore can position a country better to tap international markets effectively. IDS has commissioned studies on various aspects of domestic commerce, including competitiveness, protection, regulation, subsidies and incentives, wholesale, retail, storage, real estate and transport sectors and a synthesis of these aspects. The Collective has been invited to write a synthesis of the various studies and the domestic commerce survey findings. As the various studies are underway, the synthesis is still in its first phase.

Domestic Commerce Study

The Dutch Government, as part of its Trade Union Co-Financing Scheme, conducts research into developing countries' trade union activity. The Trade Union Co-Financing Scheme aims to promote international co-operation between the Dutch trade unions, CNV (Christian Netherlands Trade Union Federation) and FNV (Federation of Dutch Trade Unions) and trade unions in developing countries. In Pakistan, CNV and FNV's partners are APTUC (All Pakistan Trade Union Congress) and PILER(Pakistan Institute of Labour Education and Research) respectively. Berenschot and the Institute of Social Studies were conducting this research on behalf of the Dutch Foreign Ministry. The Collective was engaged to write a country background report on Pakistan. The report elaborates on socio-economic situation and policies in the country and delves particularly into the labour market (including the informal sector). Furthermore the two partner organizations, APTUC and PILER, are examined.

Country Background Report: Trade Unions in Pakistan


The study, for the UNICEF and Ministry of Education, aimed to inform policy about the interaction between social marginalisation and education in Pakistan using findings of a qualitative field survey in rural and urban sites in each of the four provinces.  Social marginalisation was defined here as the process whereby some people face systematic disadvantages in all spheres of life due to their social position or status.  The process of marginalisation is inherent in the very construction of a mainstream.  In the context of Pakistan, caste, kinship, traditional occupational hierarchies, tribal relations, religion, ethnicity, race and patriarchy are some of the important dimensions of social marginalisation.  The study examined conditions in a number of groups considered a priori to be among the social marginalized.  It enquired into the interaction between social marginalisation and the formal education system ? to what extent did formal education challenge social marginalisation, did it in any way reinforce marginalisation, and what might be the ways forward?  The project also involved the compilation of a database of non-governmental interventions and organizations working on social marginalisation and education

Social Marginalisation and Education in Pakistan

Understanding State-Business Relations Through the Prism of India-Pakistan Trade: Structural Continuities in a Changing World

Citizenship and Social Protection: Towards a 'Transformative' Agenda for Pakistan

The Government of Balochistan requested assistance from the Asian Development Bank for the preparation of a project for rural development and drought mitigation. Halcrow Pakistan were engaged on the project preparation technical assistance (TA 4319-PAK) and Haris Gazdar of the Collective was hired by Halcrow to provide poverty specialist inputs.

Poverty Specialist Inputs to Balochistan Rural Development and Drought Mitigation Project

Irregular international migration has come to be regarded as a non-traditional threat to state security. This policy perception has led to the adoption of restrictive policies towards international migration in an otherwise globalizing world economy. The Refugee and Migratory Movements Research Unit (RMMRU) at Dhaka University was commissioned by the Ford Foundation to coordinate regional studies in South Asia on irregular migration and non-traditional security, with a further focus on the human insecurity faced by irregular migrants. The Collective was invited prepare a case study based on a survey of irregular migrants in the city of Karachi.

Irregular Migration and Non-Traditional Security Threats

Rural poverty reduction is a key objective of the Government of Pakistan and the Asian Development Bank. The ADB provided assistance to the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) Secretariat of the Ministry of Finance, Government of Pakistan, to commission a study on the determinants and drivers of poverty reduction and ADB&#8217;s contribution in rural Pakistan. Haris Gazdar of the Collective was engaged as team-leader. Other team members include Dr Ali Cheema and Shandana Mohmand (both of the Lahore University of Management Sciences), Arif Pervaiz, Khaleel Tetlay and Bilquis Tahira. The aim of the study is to assist policy-making by identifying and investigating structural factors associated with poverty reduction and/or resilience. An Inception Report of the project was prepared and discussed at a national workshop in January 2005. A Scoping Paper based on an extensive literature review was prepared and discussed at a national workshop in Islamabad in March 2005.  

Determinants and Drivers of Poverty Reduction in Rural Pakistan

Conflict in Afghanistan over the past three decades has spawned one of the largest caseloads of displaced people anywhere in the world.  The policy paradigm for addressing the needs and welfare of this large displaced population has remained anchored to the "conflict-refugee" framework that was first deployed at the time of the Soviet military intervention in the country.  There is a growing realization that the "conflict-refugee" framework represents a far to simplistic and unrealistic understanding of Afghan population movements in the region.  Pakistan, which is the home to millions of people of Afghan origin, shares a long history of migratory movements with Afghanistan.  New ways of looking at the experience and outlooks of the Afghans in Pakistan will be the first step towards a reorientation of the policy paradigm towards greater realism.  The Kabul-based Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit (AREU) commissioned the Collective to carry out three case studies of Afghans in Pakistan, respectively, in Karachi, Peshawar and Quetta.  These case studies formed part of a bigger body of research encompassing Afghanistan and Iran, on refugee and migrant movements.  The research undertaken for the case studies consisted mostly of qualitative data collection including community mappings and individual and group case studies.  Transnationalism and transnational social networks were particular theme of interest in the research.  The Collective was also asked to prepare a country briefing paper to reflect the lessons of the empirical research on future policy directions.  Project findings were presented in two workshops -- one held in April 2005 in Kabul, and the other in February 2006 in Islamabad.

Afghans in Pakistan - Case Studies and Policy Thinking

Rashid Memon carried out a study of internal migration using secondary data from Population Census and other sources in order to identify patterns of behaviour and to statistically test various hypotheses concerning migration flows.  The project included a number of other studies from Pakistan and elsewhere, and was coordinated by Dr Hisaya Oda of the Institute of Developing Economies, Japan.

Determinants and Trends of Internal Migration

The Asian Development Bank engaged Haris Gazdar as poverty specialist for technical assistance to the Government of Balochistan leading up to the Balochistan Resource Management Program (BRMP), under project preparation technical assistance (TA 4230-PAK). An analytical paper was prepared based on the analysis of secondary material, consultations with stakeholders in Quetta, and field visits to Loralai, Barkhan, Kalat, Khuzdar, Sibi, Jaffarabad, Panjgur, Kech and Gwadar districts.

Poverty Specialist Inputs to the Balochistan Resource Management Program

International migration is an integral feature of the globalizing economy. The conventional approach to migration privileges the role of national policy in regulating, facilitating or restricting population movements. It is the city, however, that is destination of choice and it is the city that hosts migrant populations. Urban policy provides the opportunity for more welfare-oriented approaches to issues in international migration. Professor Marcello Balbo of the IUAV University of Venice initiated a ten-country study with the help of UN-Habitat and the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Case studies were commissioned on Bangkok, Berlin, Dakar, Johannesburg, Karachi, Naples, Sao Paolo, Tijuana, Vancouver and Vladivostok. Haris Gazdar was invited to prepare the Karachi case study. The studies were presented at the World Urban Forum in September 2004 in Barcelona.

International Migrants and the City

The Asian Development Bank made a loan to the provincial governments of Balochistan, NWFP, and Sindh (Loan No 1278-PAK Middle School Project) for the improvement of middle schooling with a particular emphasis on the schooling of girls. The Collective was engaged as consultant to provide inputs into the Project Completion Report (PCR). A sample survey was undertaken of upgraded schools in the three provinces. The survey provided detailed information for the PCR on all aspects of school upgradation and performance.

Evaluation of ADB&#8217;s Middle School Project

The Scandinavian development experience in general, and the Swedish model in particular, have attracted the attention of scholars and policy-makers in industrialized as well as developing countries. Sweden stands out as a country with an outstanding record in terms of gender equity. It also appears to provide a viable social-democratic alternative to neo-liberal hegemony in economic and social policy. Professor Naila Kabeer of the Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex, was invited by the Experts Group on Development Initiatives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Sweden, to examine the Scandinavian/Swedish experience of social development and gender equity from the perspective of developing countries. Researchers working on various developing countries were asked to reflect upon the Scandinavian and/or Swedish experience from the lens of their own work in their regions. Haris Gazdar of the Collective was asked to prepare a paper with a focus on educational policy.

Swedish Development from the Developing Country Perspective

Access to land is widely acknowledged as key correlate of poverty reduction. The conventional land reform debate has remained at an impasse, however, in all the major South Asian countries. This desk-based study was commissioned by the UK Department for International Development (DFID) through the Rural Support Programmes Network, and the Natural Resources Institute (NRI) of the University of Greenwich. Its aim was to assess the current state of policy and to identify new directions of change with respect to &#8220;access to land&#8221; in Bangladesh, India and Pakistan. The research was led and coordinate by Julian Quan (NRI) and Haris Gazdar (Collective). Country papers were prepared by Dr Abul Barkat (Dhaka University, Bangladesh), Dr Ravi Srivastava (Jawaharlal Nehru University, India) and Haris Gazdar (Pakistan). The findings were discussed at a national workshop at the Administrative Staff College Lahore in April 2004. 

Poverty and Access to Land in South Asia

Links between labour welfare, good governance practices and poverty reduction is a relatively under- researched area in the Pakistani context. Yet, given the poverty alleviation concerns of the Government of Pakistan, this is an important avenue to explore. Poverty reduction not only requires that employment opportunities be created but also that these employment opportunities are able to pull individuals and households out of absolute poverty. Moreover, there is increasing concern that employment conditions should remain 'humane', i.e. devoid of conditions of forced labour, child labour and provide a living wage (conditions of decent work). Poverty alleviation also underpins ADB's project lending to member countries. ADB has also recently signed an MOU with the ILO that binds the ADB to enforce core labour standards in all projects that it funds. Since road construction projects constitute a significant component of ADB's portfolio, the ADB commissioned the Collective to study the level of compliance with core labour standards in ADB funded road construction projects. The main objectives of the study were to document the general conditions of work in the road construction sector, gauge the level of compliance of core labour standards, as well as identify the parameters of the labour market that facilitated or hindered the implementation of key labour standards. The research was also expected to provide policy suggestions to enable the government of Pakistan to ensure implementation and monitoring of key labour standards in the road construction sector.

Labour and Governance in the Road Sector

A study based on the analysis of data collected by the Federal Bureau of Statistics on bonded labourers in Punjab Brick Kilns and Sharecropping in Sindh. 

Survey of Bonded Labour

This paper contributes to Pakistan&#8217;s poverty reduction policy framework by improving the understanding of labour market issues relevant to poverty and poverty reduction in the country. It provides a strategic review of the labour market-poverty linkage in order to facilitate better correspondence between labour and poverty-reduction policies. 

Labour Markets and Poverty in Pakistan

A study of conceptual issues with regard to social protection as well as the situation that prevails in Pakistan. Recommendations follow from the concept of social protection, the situation analysis and some basic projections on population, labour force and economic trends. 

Social Protection in Pakistan

DFID sponsored study with a focus on the structural impediments to pro-poor change. The study was managed in Pakistan by the Collective. Specific contributions of research staff included a scoping paper by Haris Gazdar and Asad Sayeed, a paper on industrial capital by Khalid Nadvi and Asad Sayeed, a paper on the civil society by Ayesha Khan and Rabia Khan, a paper on Bureacracy by Asad Sayeed and Ali Cheema and a paper on the political economy of land ownership by Haris Gazdar. The Drivers work done for DFID has been accepted for publication as an edited volume by Oxford University Press. 

Drivers of Pro-Poor Change in Pakistan

Migration - internal as well as international - has been a crucial factor in the historical experience of development and poverty reduction. The issue needs to receive greater attention in the policy debate. The Department for International Development commissioned a number of country studies in Asia (Bangladesh, China, India, Pakistan, and Vietnam) to begin a research and policy dialogue on the migration-poverty linkage. The Collective was commissioned by the Rural Support Programmes Network to prepare the Pakistan country study. The study was a desk-based strategic review of the poverty reduction implications of both internal and international migration in Pakistan. The studies were presented and discussed at a regional conference in Dhaka in June 2003. 

Migration, Development and Pro-Poor Policy Choices in Asia

Pakistans has acceded to International Labour Organization (ILO) conventions against forced labour. National legislation has been particularly concerned with the vulnerability of certain workers to bonded labour - or interlocking credit and labour relations between employers and workers. Policy action has been hampered by the non-availability of reliable data on the subject. The federal Ministry of Labour and Overseas Pakistanis with assistance from the ILO convened a national Bonded Labour Research Forum to commission and evaluate exploratory research studies on bonded labour in various sectors of the economy. The Collective was commissioned to carry out studies in five sectors: construction, tanneries, glass-bangle making, domestic service and begging. The studies adopted the "rapid assessment" methodology - based on informal qualitative data - to document and analyze labour arrangements in these sectors. Findings were presented at a national workshop in Islamabad in January 2004.

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